Olubunmi Kuku, managing director, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN)

Sade Williams/Business a.m.

Violators of airport rules and anti-touting regulations will soon be subjected to instant justice as the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has concluded plans to situate magistrate courts in airport premises across the country.

Olubunmi Kuku, the managing director and chief executive of FAAN, made this known during the meeting held on Wednesday between FAAN management and heads of security agencies at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja.

The meeting was organised to intimate airport stakeholders on recent happenings at the airport, educate them on the strategic goals of the current management, and discuss ways of enhancing passenger experience and facilitation.

The FAAN boss identified the presence of touts and loitering by members of the public as a major challenge to making genuine airport users comfortable.

“There are people who have absolutely no business being at the airport, and they continue to create issues for us,” she said. “We have an anti-touting taskforce, and as it is, we are going to start the prosecution on-site of those engaging in these illicit activities or loitering around the airport environment and harassing passengers. This doesn’t happen elsewhere around the world, and the airport should be a safe space.”

She also mentioned that she is aware of car hire operators violating processes and protocol and warned that such behaviour would no longer be tolerated.

Kuku reiterated the need to reduce manual baggage search at the international wing of the airport. She said a process would be put in place where baggage will go through screening machines, and security officials will view the contents real-time and only pull aside luggage that requires secondary screening.

“We have to streamline our efforts. We need to improve processes at the airport. This is the 21st century, and we must keep up with the times,” she said.

Kuku further announced that with the pace of ongoing work, the Terminal C of the NAIA would be ready for use by December 2024. She added that more work would be done to develop more international routes to take advantage of the International Terminal, which she described as “extremely underutilised.”

The Military Airport Commander, NAIA, Air Force Group Captain Abbas Hashim, on behalf of the other security agencies, thanked the MD/CE for convening the meeting. He called for more regular meetings and also better cooperation between the agencies and FAAN.